Judge strikes down a North Carolina abortion restriction but upholds another

A federal judge has ruled a provision in North Carolina’s abortion laws requiring doctors to document the location of a pregnancy before prescribing abortion pills should be blocked permanently. But U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles restored on Friday another provision she halted last year that required abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy be performed in hospitals. She said the law requiring physicians to document the “intrauterine location of a pregnancy” before a medication abortion is performed is unconstitutionally vague. Her decisions don't halt most of the 2023 abortion law enacted by the Republican-controlled General Assembly. That says abortions can be performed after 12 weeks only under some exceptions.